Undomestic Goddess

Samantha Sweeting is a stressed-out, high-powered attorney whose main priority is work. She definitely doesn't have time to shop, cook, clean, have a social life or even celebrate her own birthday. She's too busy trying to make partner at her high-powered, London law firm. And at the age of 29, it appears she may have succeeded.

On the same day she learns of her impending partnership, she also discovers an important legal document that she forgot to register, buried on her desk. What might seem like an innocent mistake is actually a horrifying move that is going to cost the firm's client a hundred million dollars! Stunned by the news and imagining everything she's worked so hard for crashing and burning around her, she does the only possible thing she can think of: She runs away. In a shocked state, she ends up on a train to the remote British countryside where an interesting chain of events leads to her being mistaken for an interviewee for a housekeeping position.

Exhausted and still stunned from shame, she initially plays along with the case of mistaken identity, just until she can clear her head and get a good night's sleep. But by the next day, more horror sets in as she recalls the "slight" exaggerations she told her new "employers," such as her extensive cleaning experience and degree in Cordon Bleu cooking, when in reality she can't boil water or vacuum. With every intention of telling the truth, she is reminded of her situation back home and hearing confirmation of her firing, seeing her name written across Internet chat rooms, and finding herself abandoned by former colleagues as well as chastised by her mother, who's also a high-powered attorney. Samantha decides to stay on where she is, even if it is under false pretenses and in a job she's not qualified to do. In her competitive mindset, she considers it a new challenge that she'll have to meet. Easier said than done. Chaos soon unfolds as she is forced to follow through on promises of elegant, six-course dinners and stacks of neatly pressed and folded laundry.

Rising to the challenge she does with the aid of some newfound friends. Samantha is able to actually master the domestic arts, finds unexpected romance and learns how to take pleasure in life for the first time ever. When a surprising turn of events unfolds, her charade is uncovered and she is forced to decide which version of reality she wants to claim as her own.

Great read. The book's interesting and comedic plot delivers an underlying message: to take pleasure in the things you enjoy even when times are hectic.